The Aerial Horizon

Inspiration is most easily found when we aren’t looking, but choose instead just to open our eyes…The old pilot who knows the name and nomenclature of every rivet and widget to roll out of the Boeing factory, and approaches his craft as both a science and an art…The passenger who patiently allows a more manic and less polite traveler to push past him by in line, knowing that they’ll both arrive at the same time…The former Air Force Colonel taking tickets in the airport parking garage, far from his life and home in Africa…The little girl with fire in her eyes as she watches the cockpit lights illuminate their test patterns to the sound of bells and klaxons…The lovely middle eastern lady working the opening shift at the airport Starbucks on Christmas morning that proudly shares that she doesn’t have to work on her Christmas…The ground crew carefully transferring baggage while standing cold-soaked in the rain…The van driver who makes her 27th trip of the day to “you name the” terminal, but who smiles and greets us all as though she’s just happy to be here with us. If we are observant and ready to receive the lessons, every one of these people has something to teach us…diligence, courage, tenacity, patience, perseverance, sense of duty, raw enthusiasm, hope, sacrifice, peace, and determination…We are all more alike than we will ever recognize and in the most ordinary of places, we are surrounded by the greatness of risk takers and prophets.